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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1989597" data-attributes="member: 7240">I've re-written this post about a dozen times trying to come up with something helpful to say. Simply put, there are simply too many variables here to make helpful generalizations for you. There are historical events in which there were colossal demographic disasters:540-570 CE: The "darkening of the sun" followed by Justinian's plague (unknown fatalities)1345-1355 CE: The Black Death in Europe and West Asia (about 65% fatalities)1517-1650 CE: The European epidemics in Mesoamerica (about 80% fatalities)These demographic disasters produced radically different results. So, actually, I think one can make very few generalizations about what tends to happen when lots and lots of people die. For instance, if the societies store their information orally rather than in writing, demographic disasters have very different effects on knowledge and culture loss. Another huge factor is whether some cultures are hit harder than others; people can often gain the upper hand over their neighbours if their fatality rate is less -- or some might seek to replace their lost population by forcibly "adopting" their neighbours as the Iroquois did. Also, what is meant by "recover" -- if one looks at science in terms of the engineering and technological advancements it delivers, demographic collapse often accelerates the development of tech even while it retards the development of pure science. Most scholars now acknowledges that the early medieval period was a period of steady improvements in various types of engineering -- ploughs, water mills and other labour-saving technologies appear to have been positively spurred by demographic collapse. So here is what I recommend: write the history of this world you are doing. Start with the disaster and then describe how it hits the different communities who are affected. Write the history from the disaster onwards in a methodical, systematic way, rather that guessing how things will be after some gap of centuries of millennia.</blockquote>

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